Media Release

For: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: November 1, 2005
Contact: Dona Goldman, Program Director, Diabetes Prevention & Control Program 401-222-6957

Chronic Care Collaborative Focuses On Better Diabetes Care
Second Annual “Collaborative Outcomes Congress” Reports on Progress

Wednesday, November 2nd, Crowne Plaza, Warwick, RI, 7:45 am to 1:45 pm

The Rhode Island’s Chronic Care Collaborative will hold its Second Annual “Collaborative Outcomes Congress” for health care providers, insurers and quality improvement professionals. Local and national speakers will share quality of care models for patients with chronic diseases. These models help providers improve standards of care, track care and results, enhance their own practice methods and use data more effectively to improve patients’ lives.

“The Collaborative Outcomes Congress celebrates the hard work of the healthcare teams to change the models of care and improve quality of care for patients with chronic diseases,” said David Gifford MD, MPH, Director of the RI Department of Health. “T he new treatment models represent state-of-the-art, practical approaches to help providers offer the best care possible for their patients.”

Formed in 2002, the RI Chronic Care Collaborative is made up of teams of health care providers and representatives from the RI Department of Health, Diabetes Prevention and Control Program, Quality Partners of Rhode Island, Neighborhood Health Plan of RI, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of RI, United Health Plan of New England, Brown Medical School and the Rhode Island Health Center Association. For the past year, the RI Chronic Care Collaborative has been working in primary care settings to re-engineer care delivery using a team approach, quality improvement methods, and electronic patient tracking—all resulting in improved medical care for people with diabetes.

The Collaborative Outcomes Congress will recognize this year’s top teams of participants work on quality care models. The forum will also feature the following experts:

• Ed Wagner MD, MPH, FACP, Director of the MacColl Institute for Health Innovation, Center for Health Studies, Group Health Cooperative, in Seattle, Washington.
• David Stevens MD, Agency for Healthcare and Research Quality-Center for Patient Safety and Quality, is a senior quality improvement expert who helped expand the agency’s research focus to improving health care for all Americans.
• Dr. Mark Schwager, who is in private practice in RI, implemented the collaborative in his practice. According to Dr. Schwager, “As a primary care practitioner I am always looking for ways to streamline the organization of data. The Rhode Island Chronic Care Collaborative has helped our clinic begin that process and as a consequence improved our patient care, resident training and doctor-patient relationships.”